


Trumpery

by hardboiledbaby



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Canon Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-02
Updated: 2011-10-02
Packaged: 2017-10-24 06:23:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hardboiledbaby/pseuds/hardboiledbaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Love trumps all. This is not always a good thing. Tag to <i>The Adventure of the Dying Detective</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trumpery

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the LJ sherlock60 comm, expanded to a 221-ficlet (alas, not a 221b). The 60-word version is posted at the comm [**here**](http://sherlock60.livejournal.com/23917.html).

"You won't be offended, Watson?" Holmes asked blithely. So confident was he of my acquiescence, he did not even bother to wait for my response.

If he had, I wonder what I would have said.

Profound relief that Holmes was not dying was foremost in my mind, of course. However, the deception he had perpetrated wounded me deeply. Perhaps it had been a necessary precaution before I met with Culverton Smith; I do not dispute his statement that dissimulation is not among my talents. I am neither an accomplished actor nor a practiced liar. But afterward, when I returned to Baker Street with my message delivered? A mere word of assurance from him then, before I hid myself, would have relieved my mind and lightened my spirit. He did not give it.

And I? I cannot ignore that my own behaviour was deplorable. In the matter of Holmes' health, with his very life at stake, I bowed to his seemingly bizarre demands with only the most token of protests. Good intentions cannot excuse what I did: I had cause to suspect he had lost his reason, yet I did not impose my own. I failed miserably, both as a physician and a friend.

Holmes counted on my love to trump my conscience and my medical judgment. Lord help me, it did.


End file.
